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Tepid Era
The Tepid Era, '''or Lukewarm War''' ( informally known as the '''Sino-American War '''by some groups although this is actually quite inaccurate) was a period of political tension between the United States and regional powers across the globe, including Iran, Russia, and the People's Republic of China. Included in this era were some small proxy wars and events. Vs. Iran Iran unveiled its newly obtained nuclear capability, then begins expanding its influence over the next five or so years, through political and economic leverage, most of all, knowing military action will draw in the US. With these tactics, begins expanding into the Persian Gulf, instigating the Shia majority in Bahrain. This caught the US’ attention, but due to fear of Russian-Chinese intervention, it couldn't respond; the UN was useless here due to Iran having the support of two security council members. Iran also began supporting Shia rebels in Iraq and Alawite militias in Syria. Within the five year period of Iranian expansion, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey develop nuclear weapons with help from jobless ex-Soviet scientists, as well as Pakistani help. The slow and natural rollback of Iranian power and influence in the region, after a long history of economic sanctions, slowly ended the geopolitical chessmatch in the Middle East. Vs. China The US throughout the 80's and 90's used the economy as its greatest weapon, maintaining the dollar's role as the sole reserve currency on oil, as well as out-spending the USSR, pushing it to its breaking point, where it could no longer keep up with the arms race and ended up collapsing, along with its sphere of influence. In the subsequent two decades, free trade agreements made it far easier for the US to utilize this asset, and the importance of oil as a political tool turned dollar diplomacy into what some economic experts in the 2000's called "petrodollar warfare," the manipulating of the oil markets through political dealings. When Al-Qaeda became a major threat to US security and the War on Terrorism was launched, funding was eventually discovered to come from certain governments in OPEC sympathetic with Al-Qaeda's vision of a world without US dominance in all fields, including affairs in the Middle East. OPEC's economic power was demonstrated during the Yom Kippur War, in which an oil embargo was put on countries that were on the side of Israel, namely the US. This potent leverage over the US was one of several major facets during the Lukewarm War. When China entered into a mutual defense/economic agreement with these countries, as well as Indonesia and Sudan, as well as Russia and the Central Asian nations, China had the leverage necessary to put the US into a balance, an economic Mutually Assured Destruction variant that became known by analysts, economic and military alike, as Mutual Financial Ruin (MFR). The Battle of the Xiaolong was the only direct confrontation between US and Chinese troops, as well as the only such direct engagement during the Tepid Era. It was also the first confrontation between opposing forces above earth's atmosphere, in Low Earth Orbit. It demonstrated many new weapons technologies, and it gave geostrategists their first look at how war in space might be fought, as well as what tactics would be used. Vs. Russia The Russian elite had been moving forward with the gepolitical blueprint expressed in this book for more than 30 years now. A central Union State, consisting of Russia and Belarus, but expanding into Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Moldova, and Ukraine in the form of the larger Eurasian Union, was often said to be the first step. As well, the careful manipulation of European politics through the use of oil and natural gas sales forced Europe into a position where their energy needs put them at the feet of Russia, despite the immense American influence on the region. Also, the South Ossetian War of 2008, now known to have been fully planned out by Russia, loosened Georgia's grip on South Ossetia, as well as Abkhazia, as well as scaring the former Warsaw Pact states into reconsidering their alignment with the West. Abkhazia, Transnistria, and South Ossetia gained independence and swiftly joined the Union State in early 2016. As well, the already independent states of Taijikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan joined the Eurasian Union in 2018. The Collective Security Treaty Organization then expanded its reach over all of these new member states, as well as Armenia. List of Associated Wars *Second Arab-Israeli War *Arab-African War *Second Korean War *Fourth Indo-Pakistani War *Taiwan Incident *Syrian Civil War Aftermath The multipolar world that emerged in the aftermath of the Tepid Era has made the world an incredibly more complex and elaborate place. Every power wants its time in the light, and the UN reflects this now more than ever. It has become more of a forum for squabbles than a place where action actually gets done. This actually allows the US to worry more about domestic affairs and rely on supporting regional powers against one another. These regional balances of power have become the primary means of controlling the world. After the collapse of the Russian Federation and its near-abroad, numerous wars that gripped the crumbling Russian Federation reduced it in size to around an eighth of its former size, the final nail in the coffin being a nuclear detonation in Moscow by Chechen terrorists. The rest of the federation had either declared independence or been annexed by neighboring nations, from Finland to Mongolia. On account of the circumstances surrounding the end of the Tepid Era, the United States turned more inward, out of fear of befalling a similar fate as Russia. President ____ declared the _____ Doctrine, which called for a more isolationist stance for the US, focusing instead on domestic affairs and only intervening through autonomous long-distance means (like missiles and drones). Unmanned systems received a massive increase in funding, and clandestine intervention abroad is given over to a new Department of Overseas Covert Operations. This organization received a tremendous amount of funding and resources for its operations. A network of satellites was placed into orbit to monitor the world's oceans, and numerous Enterprise-Class space stations were constructed in orbit to maintain personnel who maintain the expensive satellite network. All exertions of power became covert and anonymous. In the wake of the chaos to the east in Russia, the western European countries signed the Treaty of Rome, establishing a joint defense agreement within the remnant structures of the EU, the integration of nuclear capabilities into one shared stockpile, the establishment of international naval battle groups around the member states' aircraft carriers. The two Koreas, under political pressure from both the PRC and the USA, agreed to confederate, with each Korean state agreeing to maintain their respective political and economic system until 2029, at which time a consensus on a single unified system of government must be met. In the aftermath of the chaos that engulfed Eurasia as Russia and its power base collapsed, many nuclear physicists found work in regimes around the world, all seeking to secure their national security from the perceived threat of a sole superpower (the United States) or some neighboring belligerent. Nuclear weapons were now in the possession of anyone who has the industrial capacity to develop them, and the nonproliferation movement turned into the US trying to balance nations by giving as many as possible nuclear weapons. . Category:GM'Verse